


Spiderman- Home

by TheaterDiva92



Series: Spider Man- Home [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adoption, BAMF James "Rhodey" Rhodes, BAMF Ned Leeds, BAMF Pepper Potts, Ben Parker Dies, But I won't because i want to post the story, Character Death, Dead May Parker (Spider-Man), F/M, Foster Care, Good Friend Ned Leeds, How Do I Tag, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, I Tried, I can Tag this All day, Intern Peter Parker, Legos, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Orphan Peter Parker, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pepper Potts Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Pre-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Precious Ned Leeds, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Ned Leeds, Protective Pepper Potts, Protective Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Robbery, Secret Identity, Spider-Man: Homecoming Compliant, Tags Contain Spoilers, Tags May Change, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Deserves Better, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Worried Ned Leeds, endgame? don't know her, false representation of foster system, fuck the russo's, ish
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:01:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23822740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheaterDiva92/pseuds/TheaterDiva92
Summary: After Watching his Aunt and Uncle get Shot and Killed, Peter Parker is sent into the foster system where he is constantly being uprooted and moved all around Queens due to one reason or another. however; that doesn't stop Peter from donning his red and blue suit to protect his city. One day after a accident that gets him kicked out of another foster home, Peter is sent to a home in his old Neighborhood. Where he used to live with May and Ben.Tony Stark has been trying to find the Spiderling for a while now. But has been unable to find him due to Spiderling moving all around Queens for no reason at all. He was lucky the events of the Civil War stopped others from finding him before he did. But now with the Rouges on the run, both Ross and Fury have shown interest in the little Onsie-Clad Hero from Queens and Tony was doing everything in his power to find him first.Then one day Spiderling is spotted patrolling Forest Hills. The first Area Tony had record of him patrolling. Tony immediately heads over there to try and spot the little webslinger. He doesn't find the Spiderling, instead he comes upon a kid by the name of Peter Parker.Or Tony is trying to find Spiderman- He ends up adopting Peter Parker.
Relationships: Ben Parker & May Parker (Spider-Man), Ben Parker & May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Ben Parker & Peter Parker, Ben Parker/May Parker, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark, May Parker (Spider-Man) & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Spider Man- Home [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1716466
Comments: 85
Kudos: 478





	1. The Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer- I own absolutely NOTHING or NO ONE from the MCU universe. I am merely writing fanfiction for FREE. All characters and original stories are owned by Marvel Studios and Disney and created by Stan Lee.
> 
> This Story is set in the Spiderman Homecoming (Directed by the WONDERFUL Jon Watts) timeline and as such does follow the plotline of the movie but with my own twist. I made some original characters but other than that I own nothing.
> 
> THERE IS A GORY SCENE IN THIS CHAPTER! I WILL PUT A LINE THROUGH THE STORY TO SHOW WHERE IT IS AND WHERE IT ENDS!
> 
> In case you haven’t already noticed I am an anxiety filled person and I’m starting to remember why I always got nervous writing and posting fanfiction lol.
> 
> If you haven’t watched Spiderman Homecoming yet already then, I highly recommend it. It makes you feel better after Endgame which just ruined me. Ruined. Me. Yes; yes, it did need to be said twice.
> 
> LETS ACTUALLY GET ONTO THE STORY NOW!

_“Come on bud, pick one.”_

_“I can’t.”_

_“You can. We may not be able to get one of the bigger sets, but you can still pick one.”_

_“I can’t Uncle Ben. Thank you but it’s still too much.”_

_The young boy shoved his hands in pockets and ducked his head as his Uncle was trying to get him to pick a Lego set. They had left his Aunt a little while earlier to take a walk. But the older man had steered the two of them off to the Legos. The boy- Peter, didn’t think that was necessarily fair. His Uncle Ben knew he would have a hard time resisting. Especially if he saw a Star Wars set, he knew it would do him in. But Peter had a feeling that that was his Uncle Ben’s plan to begin with._

_“It’s fine Pete you’ve had a rough couple of weeks. We’re not so bad off that getting a **little** something for yourself while we’re grocery shopping is going to set us back.” Uncle Ben gently shoved Peter to the side and ruffled his hair. Peter felt a small smile tug at his lips as he tried to squash the feeling of guilt down in is stomach. It was an unspoken truth in their home- as much as May and Ben tried to tell him differently Peter still knew; money was tight. And sometimes- it was tighter than tight. He knew he didn’t make it any easier on them but every time he tried to get a job to help, they refused._

_“Did Aunt May approve you making such a frivolous purchase while we went out to get milk and eggs?” Peter looked up at his Uncle cheekily._

_Uncle Ben mock gasped and grabbed Peter from behind, covering his nephew’s mouth. “SHH! She’ll hear you!” Peter let out a muffled laugh._

_“I’ll hear what now Ben?” A voice came up from behind. The duo whipped around to see the woman in question push her glasses up on the top of her head. The ghost of a smirk alighting her face._

_As if Aunt May **didn’t** know why her husband and nephew were in the Lego aisle of all places._

_Without letting go, Uncle Ben took a step away and quickly turned them back around. Whispering loudly in his ear- loudly enough for his wife to hear. “Shh! She’s here. Don’t look; Just act natural.” Holding back a snicker, Peter nudged Ben off which he immediately complied as he turned to face his wonderful wife and enveloped her in a bear hug. “May! the Larb of my life! Did you find everything we needed?” May grinned as she wrapped her arms around her husband._

_Peter watched the two of them interact with each other with a smile as he wandered down the aisle. He looked around the aisle glancing at the many sets but picked nothing up to examine, he didn’t want to give Ben any ideas._

_He got to the end of the aisle and looked back at May and Ben; drinking in their sight. This was how he loved seeing them- carefree and happy. As if they didn’t have any bills to worry about or that they wouldn’t see each other for more than a day because either one or both of them had to either work late or overnight. But this; being out with his family made Peter so happy his heart ached. Peter wanted so badly to hold onto this moment and never let it go. He didn’t want to steer too far from the two. In fact, he knew it sounded a bit childish, but he didn’t want to even take his eyes off them. For some reason he was too afraid that if he even blinked, he would lose them again._

_Wait._

_Again?_

_Some faint but familiar pang dropped in the pit of his stomach as he stared at his beloved Aunt and Uncle. A nagging voice in his brain was trying to tell him something important. His senses were dilating. Peter scrunched up his face from the new onslaught of pain. They did that almost all the time now. He was starting to get himself used to it, but he was still trying to figure out what exactly set them off. But this time- this time he had a sickening feeling he already knew._

_Something bad was about to happen. That pang in his stomach started to intensify._

_Not here. Not now._

_Peter felt his eyes close tight in agony as he tried to work through the onslaught of all his senses feeling like they were on 11.The store was too loud, too bright, He opened his eyes just a peak before having to shut them again. He felt around for the shelf and held onto it just so he wouldn’t curl in on himself in pain. His senses were getting easier to maintain but still took a while for the feeling to pass. Once he felt the rush begin to ease, he opened his eyes just to squint. He looked around the store in anxiety but desperate to locate the source of the danger. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw no one around; and turned back to Ben and May. He felt a brief moment of relief that they didn’t seem to notice his ‘episode’ but his fears were not diminished; however, when he saw that they were no longer looking so carefree and instead looked to be in a deep discussion._

_Peter knew he should feel more trepidation as he walked back to his Aunt and Uncle but just seeing them there, together, brought Peter comfort. And even though for some reason he knew he shouldn’t have; he latched on to that feeling._

_What was so bad about latching on to the feeling of comfort anyway?_

_As he got closer to Ben and May he focused in on their conversation. Which ended up being about him. Again._

_Go figure._

_“I don’t know what’s going on with him May. He seems okay and like himself but then it’s like he’s in pain and runs away. It feels like he doesn’t know he can talk to us. I don’t know what to do, I just want to help him.”_

_“Honey, he knows he can talk to us. It’s probably just a phase. You know how teenagers can be.”_

_“Peter is not like every other teenager.”_

_“You’re right he’s not. But he’s still a teenager and he’s still going through puberty and he’s changing; he’s going to have those times where he’s going to not want to talk to us and then there’s going to be times where he’ll be yelling so much we’re going to probably need earplugs. If we try to make him open-up, then his pesky teenage stubbornness is going to show where he won’t even want to leave his room to talk to us.”_

_Ben nodded his head as he processed her words carefully; then he let out a smirk. “You know I never would have thought you would be on board with getting earplugs to block Peter out if he gets too loud. I would have brought it up ages ago. Now that I know you’re on board, I think we need to pick some up while we’re here; don’t want to take any chances of hearing anything I NEVER wanted to hear out of my sweet innocent Nephew.”_

_It took May a moment to realize where her husband was getting at and slapped him on the arm. “Shut up! I swear Ben Parker you’re a big teenager yourself; get your fucking mind out of the gutter!”_

_Peter: who didn’t get what Ben was implying **at** **all** until May practically spelled it out for him; went completely red in the face._

_What the **FUCK**??_

_Ben barked out a laugh as Peter pretended not to hear that but still secretly wished for the ground to eat him whole. All his previous senses and thought process now dulled by his embarrassment._

**_Now_ ** _seemed like the perfect time to pick something up and pretend to examine it. He turned to the display on the wall and tried to pick something that he knew that he could be interested in but something he could easily put back down. Against his better judgement, he tuned back into the conversation, Thanking God when he realized they were no longer on **that** topic._

_“Look- I know you want to help him, but we really can’t afford to be buying anything else that we don’t need right now. If and when he really needs our help, he’ll come to us, I know he will. But for now, how about a compromise? Instead of getting a Lego set we go get some popcorn and chips and have a movie night. There is a sale on family size bags so we can splurge a little that way. And I know it’s your time to pick but let Peter pick this one. how does that sound?”_

_Ben nodded his head in agreement but still seemed hesitant, Peter heard him mumble “You **do** realize he’s going to pick Star Wars, again right?”_

_May rolled her eyes fondly. “Yes, I realize that. I’ve almost memorized the Force Awakens word for word.”_

_Ben grinned a little at that looking a bit smug. “The one that came out last year? You still haven’t memorized it yet?”_

_She quirked an eyebrow at him. “Have **you**?” she asked, already knowing the answer._

_Ben’s grin turned sheepish. “Well_ no _, not exactly- not yet anyway.” Ben looked down and rubbed his eyes tiredly; not even bothering to hide the smile forming on his face. “We might have it memorized by tonight though I think.”_

_“Hey now he might not pick it” Ben quirked an eyebrow at her this time. She continued on with a slight smug look on her face. “There are like 7 films in the Star Wars franchise there’s a lot of movies for him to pick from tonight.” May smiled as Ben rolled his eyes at her. She won- and she knew it. She then turned to Peter; whom she also knew was listening in. “Pete? Peter?”_

_Peter panicked as he realized they caught him listening in, and grabbed a box set without even looking off the wall; thus, knocking over about three different boxes off the shelf. “OH huh? Yeah- I- I mean, yeah what’s up?” he kept his head down as he picked up the boxes and put them back on their rightful shelves._

_Ben and May both looked at him in amusement. Peter really didn’t want to think about how guilty that must’ve looked._

_“Movie night.” May repeated. “Your pick. We’ll get chips and popcorn. Sound like a plan?”_

_The embarrassment faded. Slightly. But the uneasiness came back full force. Peter couldn’t figure out why, but he tried to cover it up with a smile. By the look of his Aunt and Uncle’s faces he probably only half-succeeded._

_“Y-yeah that sounds good to me! I-I’ll just put this back then. We can get it another time.” Peter said as he fumbled with the box. Peter took a glance down to see what it was that had picked up in the first place._

_Lego Disney Princess: Cinderella’s Dream Castle._

_Oh._

_He felt his cheeks heat up as he heard Ben muffling a snicker._

_But it had 585 pieces. Hmm. Maybe Ned’s little sister might like it for her birthday. He looked at the price._

_$55.99_

_Nope. He’ll tell Ned about it in the morning._

_Peter hurriedly put the box back on the shelf and turned back to the other two. But before they could leave the aisle Ben came over and looked at the box he put back. He smirked at his now blushing nephew._

_“Hmm. Cinderella huh? A popular choice. Are you **sure** you don’t want to get it?” Ben held back a laugh as his nephew blushed even further._

_“Aww Ben Come on!!”_

_“And here I am pegging you for Princess Leia as your favorite Disney Princess.”_

_Peter glared at him and Ben only smiled wider. “Knock it off Ben! And of course, Carrie Fisher is my favorite!” Ben just laughed at him and ruffled his hair before pulling his wife into his side and leaving the aisle to head to the counter._

_Peter gawked at him; fixing his hair as he ran to catch up. “Hey wait a sec!” Ben laughed as he came up to his side._

_“Hey, Christmas is coming up soon; maybe Santa will get it for you.” He winked at the kid who now resembled a tomato._

_May let out a snort as Peter groaned into his hands “Ben!” He ducked as Ben tried to ruffle his hair again. “Don’t **do** that! I fixed it earlier, so it looks **nice**!” he half- glared at the man as he pulled him into his side._

_Ben snorted. “Please, you put way too much of that gel in your hair you should leave it curly it’s looks cute.” He grinned at the glare Peter gave him in response._

_“It does **not** look cute!”_

_May turned to her husband as if to say I told you so. “Cue those pesky teenage hormones tingling.”_

_Peter closed his eyes and groaned. “Please don’t say ‘Hormones’ Or ‘Tingle’ May. Especially not in the same sentence.” Ben and May laughed at his expense._

_“Whatever you say baby you know I Larb you.” May grinned at him and bit her lip as to stop herself from laughing at her own very ‘punny’ joke. Peter blushed at the action as he ducked his head. He didn’t necessarily mind when they teased him like this, to him it showed that they cared. But he did kinda wish sometimes they didn’t do it to him at the front of a very public store._

_He didn’t understand why that thought made his stomach churn with nauseating guilt._

_Still laughing at the boy, Ben said. “Why don’t you go get the movie snacks and meet us at checkout? As long as I get a bag of BBQ I’ll be happy with whatever.”_

_Peter squashed the feeling down and smiled as best he could at his Aunt and Uncle. “Yeah sure. I’ll be right back.”_

_As he said that he felt in his head that he wanted to scream. He didn’t want to leave them. He **needed** to stay right here, with them._

_Regardless of his inner turmoil, he turned and walked away._

**_NO! GO BACK! STAY WITH THEM!_ **

_His mind was screaming to just stay put. To not leave them. But his body acted of his own accord. Heading to the snack aisle; Peter immediately grabbed the BBQ chips and looked for another bag- seemingly oblivious to himself literally begging himself just to head back. Why was his body not reacting to his ‘freak out’? Peter almost sobbed in relief when he finally grabbed a bag of classic chips off the shelf and started to back out of the aisle._

_That tingling feeling was back again. And it came back full force._

_Peter sped a little faster now hoping against hope that he wouldn’t be too late this time._

_This time?_

_He heard the shouts before he even turned the corner._

_Peter ran out of the aisle and stopped short, dropping the bags._

_There stood Uncle Ben with his Arm around Aunt May to shield her as a man in a black hoodie and a gun was threatening the cashier._

_Peter felt as if he were frozen in place. His mind screamed at him to move. To do something-_

**_Anything!_ **

_Uncle Ben kept himself in front of his wife as his eyes scanned the area around him-widening when he caught sight of Peter only twenty feet away. As subtly as he could Ben jerked his head to the side; eyes darting to the exit._

_But Peter stood frozen in fear._

_Again, Ben tried to Jerk his head towards the exit; trying to get Peter to move. Aunt May noticed his head jerk this time and followed her husband’s line of sight. Peter’s eyes met May’s and he saw her eyes widen in terror._

_That got Peter moving._

_But not in the direction of the door. No; Peter’s senses were **screaming** at him. he felt his body move out of its own accord toward the robber with the gun. He didn’t have a clue what to do or how he was even going to help, but he couldn’t just leave his family. But the moment Aunt May and Uncle Ben saw him take a step **not** in the direction of the door they paled. May gripped her husband’s upper arm tightly and Ben tried to motion for Peter to stop. It all took seconds for the family to have this silent conversation._

_But seconds was all it took._

_The robber saw the movement out of the corner of his eye and reared the barrel of the gun towards his uncle’s chest. The gun clicked and his senses spiked violently._

* * *

_He shot. Peter flinched painfully at the sound. He watched in in horror as Ben’s chest started to rapidly turn to red._

_The momentum of the impact pushed Ben into May as they both stumbled to the ground. May screamed frantically as she held up her husband from tumbling. The robber followed her movement with his gun. His senses spiked as the gun clicked again._

_He shot. Peter flinched again; he screamed as May’s head snapped back in a way that was sure to have broken her neck. Her hair sprawled across her face. Peter’s scream seemed to spook the robber and he jerked his head to face Peter._

_They locked eyes. Peter knew he would never forget his face. Another monster that Peter would never escape and would forever haunt his dreams. He watched as his monster turned and ran from the store. The bag of cash was tightly secured under his arm._

_Peter felt like he was in a horror movie. The ones where you know you should, but you just can’t look away._

_But this was worse. Oh God this was **SO** much worse._

_He could now only see Ben and May; his beloved Aunt and Uncle; sprawled out on the floor of the grocery store, a growing puddle of red underneath them. Peter didn’t even feel himself move but within seconds he was by their side. Seeing them up close made the air around Peter too thick for him to breathe. Now with a painful ache in his chest that was almost throbbing Peter knelt by both their bodies and leaned into them. Calling their names, begging to see or hear even the slightest hint that they were still alive._ _His mind not daring to believe what his heart already knew._

_No, not them. **Please** not them. They’re all Peter has left._

_He tried to shake them awake, getting blood all over his hands. He stared horrified by the blood. Their blood. Ben and May’s blood._

* * *

_It was on his hands. He could have stopped this. But he didn’t. This was his fault._

**_NO!_ ** _NONONONONONONONO_

_Sirens were blaring, someone was screaming. He didn’t know how long look it took to realize that it was himself._

**Peter Parker** awoke sweating and shaking with a silent cry strangled on his lips. Threadbare sheets tangling up in his hands as he jerkily sat up in bed and tried to get his bearings. His eyes darted around the dark room; shapes were now coming into focus as his eyes were adjusting to his surroundings. Faintly he could make out the pale blue on the walls surrounding him and the small table that served as a nightstand. He knew this room. He was in his room at the Miller’s. His current foster home. The room was small, well; it was too small to accommodate all three boys that the Miller’s currently fostered. At the thought of the others, his eyes darted over to the two other boys he shared the room with; sighing in relief when he saw their lumps on their beds. Still blissfully asleep. Completely unaware of Peter’s current turmoil. More often than not, his nightmares would wake the entire home; giving Peter no reprieve to the horrors his mind would replay over and over again. Peter couldn’t be more thankful for the very rare moment of privacy. Something that was near impossible to get in the foster care system.

No privacy. But always alone. It was a lose-lose situation.

Peter rubbed a hand across his face; wiping off the stray tears that leaked out _. Breathe in. Breathe out._ That’s what the counselor had said. So, Peter had tried. One shaky breath in, one shaky breath out.

He wasn’t there anymore. He wasn’t at the store.

But neither were they.

_In. Out._

It had been seven months.

Seven months since Ben and May were killed.

Seven months since Peter Parker became an orphan once again.

_In. Out._

Peter shut his eyes tight as he tried to hold back a sob. He was trembling. He hated setbacks- He had been getting better. He had been. He wasn’t waking up screaming every night anymore. He wasn’t constantly waking up every member of his current foster home. He could actually get in a decent night’s sleep- it only happened a couple nights a week; but it was better than before. He was also smiling more. The moments were few and far between, especially for a once happy kid like Peter, but they were still _there_ \- and that was progress. Ben and May always told him to look at the positive, just to keep looking up. And he had been. Or at least he tried.

But it hurt.

It hurt to think about them still. It hurt to listen to their advice. How can he? When he was the reason they died. He could have stopped him. He **should** have stopped him. With everything that Peter now knew about his senses and his powers there was no reason that he couldn’t he have stopped those bullets. Their blood was on his hands. That’s what they would think right? Peter sucked in a breath. What would they think of him right now? To see him listening to them _after_ they died. To see him trying to move on.

_In. Out._

As silently as he could; Peter got out of bed and looked over at the alarm clock that was on the small table.

**12:48AM**

3 hours. He’d only been asleep for 3 fucking hours. He rubbed the sleep tiredly from his eyes. It was much too early to be up for the day. But there was no way that Peter could get sleep anytime soon. Not with the thoughts currently on his mind. Peter turned over and leaned down where he had his phone plugged in next to his bed on the floor.

**Fully charged.**

Good.

Peter pulled the phone off the charger and put it on the bed before reaching back down and stuck his hands under his bed. He felt around quietly until he had found the fabric he’d been looking for. Very carefully, he pulled out Uncle Ben’s old duffle bag where he kept half his belongings that he was allowed to keep out from underneath the bed and sat with it on top. Carefully, he unzippered the bag. He paused as he turned to the other boys sleeping figures and stuck his hand inside the bag. As silently as he could; he pulled the false bottom to the side and reached under it. He looked over at the two boys in trepidation before pulling out what looked to be a very old pile of clothes.

_But it was so much more than that._

Peter stole a glance at the other two boys in the room. He wanted to make sure they were indeed still sleeping. When he could hear the telltale signs of the boys snoring; and see that their eyes were still closed did he put the clothes on. He left his Pajamas on under what now revealed to be a homemade suit. He had been out at this time of night often. He knew it could get cold when he was swinging high up in the air. He put a red mask on over his face and stuck the goggles on over his eyes as he crept over to the wall. He went into the pockets of the suit and pulled out what looked to be two small shackles and clasped them around his wrists. He touched the wall lightly and moved up it silently to top of the window. Peter unlocked the window and quickly shot outside before closing it back up until it was just slightly opened- barely noticeable. He didn’t want to get caught outside again- he had already been kicked out of one foster home because someone had woken up and noticed the window had been opened. The window had been locked by the time Peter came back and he was stuck outside in his pajamas until his foster parents found him in the morning on the doorstep. Of course, Peter hadn’t been there that long for them to know him any better, so naturally his fosters had immediately thought the worst of him.

He had to pack up to leave before noon. His Social Worker was not happy.

Once he made sure the window was cracked open enough for him to easily get back in without being too noticeable Peter turned around onto the wall and shot a web at the corner of a building and swung into the night.


	2. The Spiderling File

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own anything in Marvel
> 
> Thank you guys so much for reading!!! I was very nervous about posting so i was so excited to see the positive feedback for this story!! I hope you guys like this next chapter, every chapter has a different characters point of view and whoever's point of view the chapter is in I have been trying to bold their name the first time it come up in the chapter.
> 
> I kinda put in a 'see notes' type of deal I'll probably do that for future chapters too. if you see a small number next to a word there is a post note in the end notes section.

**Tony Stark** had been up well into the night again. It was a habit he had picked up years ago and unfortunately it was one that wouldn’t go away that easily.

This time though; this time it wasn’t just because of his anxieties and his restless mind (although it could be part of the reason.) He wasn’t tinkering in his lab working on his suit (he couldn’t even look at one of them in particular) or his many different projects or upgrades or anything that would right now give him at least some semblance of accomplishment or joy. Of Relief.

No, this time he was sitting at his desk nursing his 5th cup of coffee of the night. Or was it 6th? It didn’t matter. Tony had already had his AI Friday make him another pot.

Pepper was going to be _pissed_.

But there was too much that he had to do. So much he needed to solve. So much that he needed to fix. And if there was one thing Tony could do, it would be to fix this. He would _fix this._

The night had begun with working on the accords.

Rhodey had been with him for that earlier. The mug from his coffee was still sitting there on the desk. They had been going at it for weeks. They sat together pouring over every single paper. Every single paragraph. Every single line. It was tedious. Tony thought it was the most boring thing he’d ever done. But Rhodey sat up with him and had stuck through it. They spent hours reading and rereading each clause. Crossing out and rewriting a better version. It wasn’t perfect- far from it. But it was a start in the right direction. The first steps they had to ensure that people not only were safe but that they also felt safe enough that they could trust the Avengers and the people with special abilities to protect them as well as protecting themselves in the process. Tony knew that they had a long way to go but it was progress. And they had worked on it _together_.

_Together_. Tony winced. Someone else had once said together. That someone was long gone.

Rhodey however couldn’t stay for long, he had a meeting early in the morning before having to go back to DC. So, around midnight he had to turn in, making a promise to Tony that they would continue working on the accords when he got back. Tony didn’t doubt him for a moment. That was the thing with Rhodey- no matter what shit that happened or how much Tony was an ass for one way or another (and Tony knew that he could be even without intending to sometimes) he was always there. If Rhodey said he was going to be there he damn well was going to be there. Sometimes he pretended hated it, but really, he loved it- Not that Tony could ever tell him that of course.

But Tony had a pretty strong feeling that Rhodey already knew without him saying so. Tony knew he didn’t deserve a friend as good as Rhodey. He dreaded the day Rhodey figured it out too.

Tony watched him go with a feeling of guilt wash over him. The braces on the man’s legs still making slight noises with each step he took. He was doing better _but_ \- but the damage was done. They fought hard and had gotten a few good ones in, but they had really taken a beating in Germany. Out of everyone that had gotten hurt, Rhodey had taken the most damage. Tony would’ve given up all of his money and everything he owned just so it could have been him instead. As much as Tony tried to apologize to him Rhodey stayed adamant; nothing had changed his mind that signing the accords was the right thing to do. And it may be a little selfish; but Tony was relieved he still had his best friend; his brother. He lost too many friends with these damn accords. So many people that Tony had let in through his walls in a short amount of time and almost all of them have left him. And even though Tony still believed signing them was the right thing to do so they could protect the people of Earth; he was still trying to change them to appease the people he had once called his family.

He was going to _fix this_.

After the door clicked shut Tony stacked all the papers and pushed them all to the side of his desk. He wanted them out of his way but still close enough that if he thought of something, he could easily write it down with the notes he and Rhodey had been keeping. But the truth was, Tony had no intentions of looking at the accords unless necessary after Rhodey had gone to bed. No, he had something else that he needed to figure out. He had to put it on the back burner for a while because the accords had taken priority then he had the splitting of the team and taking care of the aftermath took up most of his time for the past couple of months. While putting this off originally didn’t concern him too much, he knew that unfortunately now, time was of the essence. He knew this had already caught the attention of both SHIELD and the government and through extension Fury and Ross. But after everything that happened in the past couple of months with Steve and the fucking Accords and even before that with the discovery of Hydra infiltrating SHIELD, he didn’t want anyone else getting to this information before he did.

However; Tony had to admit that If one good thing could ever be said that came out of the Accords, it was that because they took up so much time and resources that Fury and Ross hadn’t had the time to make a break in the case before Tony could. And he was grateful for that.

So once Rhodey had gone Tony resumed another project. One that he put on his own private server.

“Friday, pull up everything new that has come up on the ‘Spiderling’ file.”

“As you wish Boss.” The AI responded and just like that the hologram on his desk started to glow with a new video of a certain blur of red and blue swing into the night sky. Tony watched the video with interest the small blur just shooting pass the camera as it shot what looked to be a web at a woman just about to get run over by a car in the intersection. It was a pretty good save, Tony was impressed.

“Friday stop the video.” The AI promptly did what was asked of her and Tony leaned into the picture to get a better view. “Where was this filmed?”

“The video was taken in an intersection in Ridgewood, Queens Boss.”

“Ridgewood?”

“Affirmative.”

“Why all the way in Ridgewood? He was patrolling in Glenn Oaks just a few weeks, ago wasn’t he?” Tony said more to himself than to the AI. Tony wasn’t born a New Yorker sure; but ever since this little ‘Spider-person' popped up on his radar Tony had been researching the Queens borough thoroughly. Out of the very little Tony could figure out on this guy he could figure out that he was a pretty localized hero, while yes, he could move around fairly well on those ropes (the public had started to call them webs and Tony could understand why.) He normally stayed in one neighborhood (maybe two; if they were small and close enough together) for the duration of what could be considered his ‘patrol’.

But Ridgewood was about half an hour away from Glenn Oaks. By car at least.

This was what was getting to him- that every couple of weeks (sometimes even just days) of patrolling one specific area he would go dark for a couple of days but when he came back, he was patrolling a completely different neighborhood. And Tony didn’t want to admit but it was bothering him that he couldn’t figure out why. He was a genius damnit if this guy stayed in one fucking place for long enough Tony probably would have figured it out by now! Fuck, if he’d had found this guy a couple of months ago, he would have been able to recruit him to help in Germany.

But the accords kept him busy, and Spiderman kept moving. There was no way to know what would have happened if he had found him in time1. Even now the accords and Ross are still keeping him busy as well as trying to upgrade Rhodey’s prosthetics, working with Pepper to keep Stark industries going, being leader of the Avengers, Keeping Fury and Ross off of his ass, trying to find Bruce, and trying to work out his and Pepper’s relationship. The only time he could dedicate to looking for the Spiderling was when he was ‘supposed’ to be sleeping. Which he hadn’t exactly done in- two days was it? He knew Friday was probably keeping track of that; he’d have to ask her later. But every time Tony was able to come back to his project, Spiderman was already in a different place. Right now, all Tony could do was speculate at this point. And Tony _loathed_ that all he could do was speculate.

“Friday be a dear and pull up our map of Queens Borough.” Tony stood to the side of his desk as a large holographic map of Queens appeared in front of him. The map had what looked to be multiple pin markers scattered throughout the map. “Zoom in on Ridgewood. The point where the video was taken to be exact.” The map zoomed into the very spot and Tony pointed right to the intersection. “Place a pin Marker here.” The pin marker was placed, and Tony gestured with his hands to zoom out. Tony scanned the area until he found another Pin Marker. On the opposite side of the map. “This is Glenn Oaks, right?” Tony asked. In truth he already knew the answer, but he just needed to hear the confirmation.

“Clearly.” Tony cocked an eyebrow at the snark. She was learning too much from him.

The opposite side of Queens. Why move to the opposite side of Queens? It was completely random. All the moves were completely random. Tony had yet to find a practical reason as to why this guy kept moving the fuck around; he couldn’t see any connections to the sightings that were reported. The biggest things the Spiderling did in ‘crime-fighting’ was stopping the occasional robbery, carjacking and one incident involving gang violence a couple of months ago. He mostly dealt with the smaller things; like bike and purse thieves, muggers, pickpockets, helping little old ladies get their groceries in the car. The cliché good citizen shit. There were a few times where he stopped what would have been major car accidents which could have led to multiple casualties, but there was no actual pattern; nothing that connected one event to another.

Now Tony knew he couldn’t rule out the possibility of the Spiderling taking on something bigger that could have been dealt with privately. (Tony had been just itching to look for police reports to see if he could find anything else on the guy. But he had so many government officials breathing down his neck as of late and trying to actually appease the UN and the public that he didn’t want to risk it, _yet_.) but from what data that he had gathered, showed that he was just a friendly small-time hero.

‘Small time’ now. But Tony knew that it was only a matter of time before he took on more ‘big league’ issues soon. And he wanted to make sure that not only the people were safe to trust the Spiderling but after the last couple of months he also wanted to make sure that whoever was behind the mask; was safe as well.

Tony scratched his chin in thought. “Has there been any record of patrols anywhere else other than Glenn Oaks and Ridgewood and the outskirts of those neighborhoods since the last time I got a chance to look at the file?”

“Nope.”

Tony rubbed his hand over his face in frustration. Wincing when he accidently touched a particularly nasty bruise still healing on his cheek. “Has there been any activity from the Spiderling other than the video I just watched?”

“Yes Boss, there have been thirty-eight sightings spotted of the Spiderling in the last two weeks. nine of them were in Glenn Oaks while the last twenty-nine were all in Ridgewood and neighborhood next to it, Glendale. As well as seven hundred and sixty-three tweets and Instagram stories from his fanbase. The video played was the most recent spotting of the Spiderling.”

Tony waved the tweets and Instgrams into another folder entirely; those were steadily building by the day and he would need to take some time to go through and sort them all. Most of those normally consisted of people discussing how cool the guy was or how much of a menace he was to the police and for some odd reason watermelon on pizza2. But there had been a couple of good hits from them. Tony had even found a couple of tweets and stories that he placed on the map. But unfortunately, there were too many of them and Tony just never had the time to divert his attention to them. Until he had a day to go over them all, they had to stay on the back burner. The other information Tony nodded to himself. It sounded on point with what Tony could gather. This guy could move fast but once he changed neighborhoods he stayed in the area until the next move. He didn’t go back to a neighborhood again.

“When was the video taken?”

“The day before yesterday.”

Tony took in a long breath. “Show me all of the records of the Spiderling sightings in chronological order since I’ve been busy.” He poured himself another cup of coffee and went back to the hologram.

“On it.”

Friday had pulled up the list. Tony could see that clearly there had been a black out period that Tony had missed in-between patrols a couple of weeks back. It looked as if everything he missed from Glenn Oaks happened in the course of two patrols before moving over to Ridgewood and Glendale. He didn’t show up for four days during that time before making his appearance across the borough. From there he could see all the news feed from ‘Spiderman’ as the public had dubbed him.

Tony liked ‘Spiderling’ better. Watching all the videos, Tony could see the Spiderling had a ‘youthful vibe’ to him and every glimpse he could find of the guy no matter how good the shot was, he always looked very small. Or at least very small to be taking on 3,000-pound cars.

That and his suit looked like a pajama onesie. Tony couldn’t be swayed otherwise.

Tony took another swig of coffee and smiled tiredly to himself. he turned his attention back to the map.

There was another conundrum on his mind about the guy. The times of day he was patrolling were all over the place. Tony had originally been pinpointing a set time the guy would patrol around and he had been consistent with that schedule. During the weekdays Tony found that the guy was keeping a schedule of patrolling anytime between 3PM and 1AM and anytime during the weekends, which lead Tony to believe that he had a standard Monday through Friday ‘day job’ and did his patrolling after work and his days off. But then a couple of weeks ago the guy just started to patrol at all different times of the day with no rhyme or reason other than to be a pain in the fucking ass.

Every time Tony thought he was onto something, he had to start again from square one.

“Take all sightings and create them into pin markers. Place right where each sighting was located.” Tony walked around his desk as Friday completed the task and took the holographic map with him. He lowered the map and sat on top of his desk so he could get a better view. He took a sip of his coffee and cocked his head to the side as he was trying to figure out a pattern. If he could figure out a pattern, then he could figure out where this guy was going next. As Friday finished the task Tony could see eight distinct areas that the Spiderling had visited. He had been all over the map in the past seven months. The only thing that Tony had right now was that the guy kept moving around and stayed close to his current neighborhood. It wasn’t much but it was something and he was going to figure it out.

A yawn escaped his lips and Friday intervened. “Boss you’ve been up for the past 50 hours with no break. I suggest going to sleep at the earliest possible- “

Huh, so that’s how long he’d been awake for. “Noted Fri; make me the list of all neighborhoods this guy visited. Put them in chronological order.” Tony Rubbed his eyes tiredly but determined to continue his train of thought. Because he wasn’t paying attention, he didn’t register the door opening and someone coming inside.

“Tony?”

_Damn_.

Tony winced and looked up to see his assistant turned girlfriend, turned CEO Pepper Potts in the doorway. “Yes Ms. Potts?”

Pepper Potts came into the office wrapping her robe around herself. “Tony.” She sighed. “It’s 2AM why are you up? “

Tony hid a yawn as he gestured to the hologram map “I’ve some important shit going on here.”

Pepper gave him a look; she was not amused. “No; you said you’d take a break tonight and finally come to bed with me earlier.”

Tony put the mug of coffee down on the desk and wiped the map from his office space. “Pep, I was just about to- “

But she cut him off once she saw the new pot of coffee on the side of the room. _Fuck_. “Did you make yourself _another_ pot of coffee?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Tony- “

“Friday did it.”

“Thanks for throwing me under the bus Boss.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Pepper cocked an eyebrow at him, and Tony crossed his arms over his chest, he immediately felt very exposed. It wouldn’t take long for her to figure him out. She knew everything about him. “Why are you really up Tony? You need to get some sleep.”

Tony sighed and gestured to where the map had been there not moments before. “I need to figure this out Pep. I need to find this guy.”

“At 2AM in the morning?” she exclaimed.

“It’s not like I have much time during the day to do this shit;” Tony fired back. “What with SI meetings, selling this tower, Ross and Fury on my back about the Rogues, cleaning up the shitstorm that the Accords left behind.” _What everyone else left behind for me to clean up the fucking mess. Again._ “There’s just no time; and I can’t risk someone else finding this guy before me Pep I can’t.”

And that was the underlining worry that Tony had. He couldn’t risk it. This guy was gaining popularity and because of social media he was gaining it _fast_. If Fury found him, he would probably recruit him to SHIELD; (after staking out someone to spy on him and his family) was Tony still a little bitter about that? Just a bit; but it’s not like anything could change it now. Ross would want to have him registered with the UN and use him for a puppet and if the little Spider refused, it would be a one-way ticket to the Raft. Tony still shuddered over seeing his ex-teammates in those cells; especially Wanda; her words still echoed in his head about locking her in her room, he’d never done that of course but those words ended up paling in comparison to what Ross _actually_ did to her. He just knew all his competitors would want to ‘study him’. Hammer and Osborn- who was he kidding; _Osborn_ would have a field day if he were able to get his hands on him. And he didn’t even want to _think_ about what Hydra would do if they caught him; he doubted the Spiderling slipped under _their_ radar; especially after infiltrating SHIELD for so long and no one even noticed.

Nope, it had to be him. He had to get ahead in this and find the Spiderling. Before anyone else.

Pepper pinched the bridge of her nose. “Surely it won’t be that bad if someone else-“

But Tony was shaking his head before she even finished. “No, I can’t let that happen. I-I can’t Pep, if I don’t find him then who will? Huh? What if the wrong people get to him before I do? What then? What if someone finds him that wants to hurt him? That’s not a risk I’m willing to take right now what with what happened Barnes and Rogers and-“

He got off the desk and went back to his seat behind it. He needed a barrier- not against Pepper; but he knew what the result would lead to from this conversation. He had other things to worry about and he didn’t want to think about _that_ right now. “There’s just way too much on my mind right now.” He busied himself with the stack of papers Rhodey and him had been working on earlier in the night.

Pepper’s face smoothed out as a look of sad understanding crossed her face. She figured it out. _Damn_. “Tony, I know this is hard for you and I am so sorry I wasn’t there for you-”

Tony fiddled with a pen that was left on his desk as Pepper continued to talk. _You stood by my side for years. When I was at my best and my worst. Only You Rhodey and Happy have ever done that for me. And I **pay** Happy. I wish I didn’t push you away when all of this happened, but none of this is your fault._

_Maybe 12 Percent. If that_. Tony’s lip quirked at the thought. He turned his eyes back to Pepper and saw he lips were still moving.

_Oh, shit she’s still talking. Pay attention!_

“-but this is just another distraction for you. Something to keep you from getting the rest that you need. Contrary to what you might think but you don’t _actually_ run off of batteries. We’ve talked about this; you can’t just sit in here and work until you drop.”

“Technically we talked about me working until I dropped in the lab- “ he said as he grabbed the papers again, he knew it was a shit point before it even came out of his mouth. He was just stalling for the inevitable.

Pepper; as he had already guessed; was not deterred. “Don’t even start that with me! You can’t just spend all hours of the night and day working on the next project! I know you can’t just sit by and let someone else get hurt and I understand that. I support you, but you promised me you’d try and rest. You _promised_ me Tony.” Pepper sighed as she came over to the desk.

Tony put down the stack of papers he had been pretending to look over. He didn’t even know why he pretended- Pepper knew he wouldn’t willingly look at those documents. Or any documents. It was just something to occupy his hands from shaking. “I know Pep, I know. I just- “ Tony sighed and brought his left hand close to his chest and. He felt her hands rub his shoulders. Slowly, too slowly for his liking he felt the tension begin to ease.

Tony didn’t need to explain. Not to Pepper at least. She already knew.

“I know.” Pepper had said. “I know you don’t want to, but you need to get to bed. Don’t let them take this away from you too.” Tony sucked in a breath as he turned the chair to look at her. Her hands went from his shoulders to cradle the back of his neck. She kissed him softly on the lips. “I’m going to go back to bed. And _You’re_ going to join me this time.” And with that she backed up and grabbed his hand, taking them both out of the office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LOVE the scene in Ironman 3 where Tony is working with JARVIS to figure out the Mandalorian. Every time I thought of Tony trying to locate and figure out who Spiderman was I kept thinking of this scene and thought that Tony would probably use the same method in a way but with FRIDAY. 
> 
> 1- Yep, we ALL know what would have happened of course, but I had to add it in there lol.  
> 2- It’s a Nod to the PS4 Spiderman in the tweets section.


	3. Taking Care of Business

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am a broke person and I own nothing from Marvel. I have been writing fanfiction for free to help alleviate my anxiety.
> 
> Yep. That's my disclaimer. Short, sweet, and true to the point.

It was 4AM when **Pepper** finally got Tony off his caffeine high and was able to get some food in him (because _of_ _course_ Tony couldn’t remember when he last ate something.) Then get him in the shower and finally get some well-deserved sleep. But this time it was Pepper that was up, she propped her head on her hand as she smoothed out the wrinkles in her boyfriend’s forehead.

“Friday.” Pepper softly spoke as she recognized her partner’s face in a rare moment of peace.

“Yes Ms. Boss?” The AI replied softly back. Either she knew that Tony had finally fallen asleep and did not wish to disturb him or she was just mimicking Pepper’s voice volume. Knowing the way that Tony programmed her it was probably both and Pepper was grateful for her intuitiveness.

“How long has Mr. Stark been awake?” Pepper asked the AI.

“Boss has been awake for 52 hours and 14 minutes. It is suggested that Boss sleep for a minimum of 10 hours to help recover from sleep deprivation, but I _doubt_ that will happen.”

Pepper smirked slightly; Friday maybe one of Tony’s newer babies but, the AI already knew him too well. She thought about the amount of time Friday told her Tony had been awake, 52 hours; 2 days; it definitely wasn’t good but she’d been with Tony for years and she knew progress; however slow it may be; when she saw it. Still though, she would have to up her game to make sure he got some sleep every night; but she knew that would take time. “How long was he working on the Spiderman project tonight?” she asked as she rubbed her thumb against his temple.

“Boss started working on the Spiderling file at 12:10 AM and was working on it and his 9th cup of coffee until you came in and knocked some sense into him at 2:07 AM. However; due to the over-excessive amount of coffee in his system, Boss was not able to fall asleep until 4:15AM”

_Almost two hours_. That- actually wasn’t as bad as she thought it was going to be. She bit her lip in thought. Tony had been working on finding the Spiderman for a while. She knew he started looking for him before she left; before the accords were even created. She was surprised that it was taking him this long to find him. “When was the last time Tony opened the file to look for Spiderman?”

“Boss pulled up the file 2 weeks ago to work on, but only got to work on the project for 1 hour until he was called into a meeting with Director Fury.”

Pepper nodded to herself. “How long ago before that?”

“Boss checked the file again a month before that for 15 minutes before shutting it and leaving for Germany.”

Pepper frowned. “15 Minutes?” What stopped him then?

When the AI answered her; Pepper turned from confusion to annoyance. “From what I can tell Boss was trying a last minute attempt to locate Spiderman before having to leave for Germany before Ross made a surprise appearance in the building before reminding Boss that he only had 34 hours left to bring in Captain Rogers, Barnes and Wilson.”

She turned to the ceiling almost forgetting that Tony was asleep next to her before getting visually upset on his behalf. _Almost_. “How many hours did he give Tony to bring them in?” She whispered.

“36 Hours.”

She turned back to Tony and lightly caressed his cheek. She was starting to see why Tony was getting frustrated with this. She understood why Tony was trying to find this guy and she agreed that he needed to be found; if only to keep an eye on the man and make sure he was taken care of. She could see that Spiderman was helping people and the reports that said otherwise have been trying to sabotage Spiderman and all other enhanced humans. That was what happened with the Avengers and the Accords and even though Tony might not admit it aloud, but he wanted to make sure another Hero didn’t lose everything like he did. And Neither her or Tony wanted another government fiasco with casualties and major property damage. She knew how important this was to Tony that it was interrupting his sleep like this. He was worried, and with the way the Accords went down he had every right to be.

Pepper closed her eyes in thought. She knew how Tony was. She knew that Tony would stress about this and wouldn’t get any rest until he figured out the problem he’d been working on. He’d been that way for years and Pepper knew that finding the Spiderman was important enough to Tony that he would risk losing more and more sleep until he finally found the guy. But she knew that he was busy. Fury and Ross have yet to leave him alone about the Accords, the Rogues, and what was left of the Avengers, he’d been staying with Rhodey for every single Physical Therapy appointment, She’d even had been on his case with all of SI business because even though she was CEO he was still the owner of the company and Chairman of the board of Directors. Right now, Pepper knew that even though she won and got Tony to take some well-deserved rest tonight, that something else was going to have to give just so Tony could have a little peace of mind from everything on his plate. And she also knew just what it was.

“How long on average does Tony get to spend on the Spiderman project?”

It took a while for Friday to respond and her answer only solidified her thought. “Boss only gets 1-hour average at a time before he gets called away to other business.”

1-hour average. In all honesty, she’s surprised he hasn’t flipped a table yet- that she knows of. She worked her hand into his hair. “What is on Mr. Stark’s schedule for tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow Boss has a meeting at the Tower-“

But Pepper interrupted. “I’m sorry Friday, I mean his schedule for later today.” She said as she realized that it technically already _was_ tomorrow because of the time.

“Later Today, both you and Boss have a phone conference scheduled with the Board of Directors for Stark Industries, after the meeting you are both scheduled to meet with 5 departments within the company regarding current projects and productivity.”

Pepper nodded to herself, She knew her schedule but she was thankful that today was going to be one of the days that didn’t consist of both SI business and Avenger business for Tony. Being CEO; she could do something about SI business, but she was limited on what she could do with Avengers business. It took a lot of talks and a lot of bickering on both their ends, but Pepper and Tony came to an agreement about Ironman and the Avengers. Tony was in charge, and while they agreed for Tony to take a break from Ironman for a bit; Tony had the final say on when he went back. But he had to agree to be open with her and keep her in the loop about all major decisions. Neither of them were completely happy with the result; but it was a _compromise_. And before they were even a couple, they had been a team for _years_ ; Pepper wasn’t about to throw that all away just because they couldn’t talk it out like reasonable adults. _Although a certain giant bunny that Tony just wouldn’t. Let. Go. popped into that conversation once or twice._ Not that she was counting.

She sighed as looked back at Tony; frowning as she took in the rims of purple underneath his eyes. He hadn’t been sleeping well. Not since Siberia; not after what happened between him and Steve. Tony didn’t last long in not telling Pepper what happened in that bunker and when she found out, Pepper wasn’t ashamed to say that she saw _red_. While the Avengers had been a team and were fairly close, she could see that Tony and the rest of the ’team’ didn’t necessarily ‘click’, but Tony didn’t have many people he was close to; even less that he could call friends. Before the Avengers came into their lives Tony only had her, Rhodey, and Happy and while they all had their reservations about the team (whom _none_ of them lifted a finger to help Tony after the battle of New York OR when he and Rhodey brought down Aldrich Killian. Was Pepper upset about that? Just a little bit. But she had enough class to fake a smile when she was with ‘the team’.) They didn’t step in the way and watched from the sidelines as the rest of the Avengers formed a friendship with Tony and worked at bringing down his walls. Walls that took them all years to bring down.

And only months to put back up again; with the fear that she was going to be back on the outside.

But Tony had been adamant that nothing was Pepper’s fault, because taking the full blame was what Tony always did best(Pepper was still working on that with him.) and even though they were both extremely busy, Pepper with SI and Tony with SI and the Accords; they had still been working together regardless of their _time-out_ as she liked to call it. Also, both she and Tony were extremely stubborn; not that she’d ever admit to that, Tony would _never_ let her hear the end of it. But Tony didn’t think twice about letting her back in and Pepper didn’t think twice about stepping back into the game either.

But that didn’t stop years’ worth of insomnia. They were working on that too, and Tony insisted that she’s been helping again by moving back in, but there were nights that she just didn’t think so. The fact that he was up for the past 52 hours was proof of that. That’s why before Tony and Rhodey sat down to look over the Accords, she made him promise to come to bed with her tonight at a reasonable hour. Reasonable for _her_ ; not the man whose personal goal was to see if he could outrun the Energizer Bunny.

It was a promise that in all honesty, she should have made sure he kept before going to bed herself.

Now; Pepper had to work with what she had, and what she had was a sleep-deprived, overworked boyfriend who thought that all the faults of the world were on his shoulders and that he had to fix everything. They had to be up in 3 hours and not getting to sleep until 4AM after being up to 52 hours is going to do Tony more harm than good. There would be no way Tony would be able to pay attention in those meetings; let alone make any input. “Cancel all alarms and appointments for Mr. Stark tomorrow.” She spoke softly as she gently ran her fingers through his hair. “I will be taking care of those appointments myself.”

The AI was silent, and Pepper thought she had just cancelled and didn’t confirm.

She didn’t expect the response she got.

“Who are you and what have you done to Ms. Boss?”

Pepper bit back a smile at the AI’s obvious sarcasm. “It’s me Friday. Call it ‘taking care of business.’”

It only took a moment for the AI to respond. “Would you like to make that into a protocol for Boss?”

Pepper didn’t even try to hold back the smile at the idea Friday had given her. “Yes Friday, please install ‘Taking care of Business’ as a protocol for Tony. Use my clearance code to activate it; and if he asks about the protocol let him know I activated it.” She knew that Tony could override her code in a heartbeat if he felt like it.

But she wanted him to think _twice_ about doing so before he even tried to.

It didn’t take long for Friday to respond. “‘Taking care of business protocol’ has been activated. What are the parameters for activating the protocol?”

Pepper laughed softly as to not wake up her partner. He may be out like a light due to his caffeine crash and lack of sleep, but she didn’t want to push it. Tony was sure to get a kick out of that one in the morning though. “For now, just put the majors down. Put sleep deprivation and a reminder to eat under the protocol if Tony ignores send a text to me.” She would have to give more detail to those and add more parameters later. She knew Tony had self-destructive tendencies even on his best days. Then after Siberia he only got worse. Pepper could see that he was trying to do better; he was trying to be better; and she knew why. She hadn’t come back to Tony until after the fallout between him and Steve, but she was there for the aftermath and saw what it did to him.

Tony may show himself to be a ‘charismatic smartass’ to the public and even to the few people that were close to him; He could drive her, Rhodey, and Happy up a wall with his eccentrics for hours on end (Rhodey once joked with her that was his real superpower- not that they’d ever tell Tony). But if there was one thing that anyone who really knew Tony would know that he didn’t trust many people. He preferred the company of his armor and his robots to ‘human interaction’. Because he knew his technology wouldn’t betray him, it wouldn’t hurt him. (She didn’t count Ultron; as far as she was concerned, both Tony and Bruce created Ultron and Wanda had planted the decision to use Loki’s scepter in Tony’s head. It was like pulling teeth though to get Tony to realize that he was not the only one at fault for that) There were only a select few that Tony trusted. And in the span of a couple of months almost every one of them left him.

Tony made a grunt of discomfort in his sleep. She frowned and scooted closer to him as she saw him tense and his face scrunch up in pain. It hurt that she was used to this. That she was used to seeing Tony in pain. Through the years that she’d known Tony she had seen him go through a lot, but it never made it any easier. She gently took his arm and put it over her waist to elevate the weight of his arm off his chest. She watched as his face smoothed out slightly and sighed. It may not be much, but she was grateful that she could do something to help ease his pain. She was grateful that he even let her into his walls when she came back.

When Pepper first came to the compound to see Tony after the shit hit the fan with the rest of the Avengers, she didn’t know what she would find. She expected to find him holed-up in his lab; wired on coffee and tinkering on his latest Ironman suit or more likely trying to upgrade Rhodey’s leg braces with A/C or cupholders or whatever Rhodey desired. She dreaded to find him completely smashed in some closed off corner of the compound and to have a relapse on his recovery.

What she didn’t expect was Tony and Rhodey pouring over _paperwork_ of all things, going over every detail in the accords they signed. Rewording certain parts to better protect the heroes and civilians alike. They had gotten through the initial editing when Pepper came into the office. She watched them work together in near silence; occasionally going over something in the Accords to each other and how it should be rewritten. She watched them work before of course but this was different. In the past there would always be light bickering; mainly in the form of Tony trying to get Rhodey to laugh and to stop being so serious then Rhodey would quip back that Tony needed to _actually_ _start_ working. This time there wasn’t a single joke thrown or even a smile. When she finally got their attention, she didn’t expect them to look at her in trepidation as if she was about to leave them too. She would never forget when she looked into Tony’s eyes and saw the fear flash through them. Fear that in that moment he thought he was going to lose everything he had left.

She saw the same fear in his eyes during that Christmas years ago, the same fear as he proclaimed that he was just a man in a can, and he had to protect the one thing he couldn’t live without. It wasn’t lost on her that this time she was one of those that left him; that she was the first to leave him; that helped put that fear in his eyes. It was in that moment Pepper knew she never wanted him to fear like that again. She couldn’t live without him either. She would never leave him again; and she would spend the rest of her life to make sure he knew that.

“Friday turn the lights down please.” She lowered her voice even more as she moved closer to the man, smiling slightly as she felt him start to relax further. The lights turned off and she held him closer.

“Would that be all Ms. Boss?”

Pepper smiled at the familiarity of the phrase as her eyes flickered shut. “That would be all Friday thank you.” And she let herself fall asleep as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Chapters 1,2, and 3 were all one chapter before I decided to split the chapters up by characters points of view.
> 
> Any and all comments and suggestions are always valued and appreciated.


	4. The Accident

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am a broke person and I own nothing from Marvel. I have been writing fanfiction for free to help alleviate my anxiety.
> 
> Yep. That's my disclaimer. Short, sweet, and true to the point.

It was still dark out when **Peter** came back to the window he had left ajar in the bedroom. He snuck to the side of the window and took a quick glance through to make sure the other boys were still sleeping. Once reassured they were, Peter went to open the window. Silently, he cracked the window open just enough and crawled inside the bedroom; effortlessly crawling down the wall and back to the ground. He took off his mask and read the alarm clock.

**3:20AM**

Peter sighed as he shrugged off the rest of his suit; It hadn’t been a very long patrol. But he was too exhausted to even think about staying out later. He also didn’t steer too far away from the house. He was never in an area long enough to learn the neighborhood. There had been one time in the beginning when he had patrolled that he admittingly gotten lost and couldn’t find the house he was staying in again. Thankfully it was Saturday, so he had been patrolling during the day. He was able to call his Social Worker and tell her he got lost trying to learn the area. While she did seem a little frustrated at the time, she had pulled up the address to where he was staying and guided him over the phone back to the house. He had had to ’lose’ his way into an alley just so he could take off his suit. After that he made sure he took a couple of days to learn the area and find his way around first before going on a patrol in that neighborhood.

Once he was back down to his pajamas, he took his suit and carefully stowed it away back into his hiding place. It wasn’t an very eventful patrol either. All he had really done tonight was stop a argument at a bar that was seconds away from escalating into a full blown fist fight (the two guys wanted to take a picture with him more than anything and Peter said yes as long as they were nice to each other, they laughed at that but Peter didn’t get it.), walked a nurse to her car because she was leaving work by herself and her phone died, he pulled a drunk man out of the way of a car and walked him home and brought food that McDonalds threw away at closing to the homeless man a couple of blocks down the road; it wasn’t much and Peter didn’t like the idea of taking food out of the garbage but he was in the alley when they closed so it wasn’t in the trash for long at all and it was wrapped and something that the guy could have in his stomach, the man thanked him and told him that was more than what he could’ve asked for. Mostly after that he checked the area for anything else, he could do but he didn’t see or sense anything was going to happen, so he sat on the edge of a building for a while before he returned back to the home.

Very carefully, he laid back into the bed. He still had no desire to go to sleep, but he knew he didn’t have a choice. The Millers were good people, but Peter knew that having him in their household was starting to take its toll. He wasn’t there very long, but they had already noticed the bags under his eyes from the lack of sleep. Everyone in the house knew about his nightmares so it wasn’t a shock to anyone that he would be having trouble sleeping. If it was a night that Peter woke up screaming, then Mr. and Mrs. Miller would stay up with him for a little while. Every night they would try and talk to him- get him to tell them about his dream; but Peter always refused. It wasn’t like he could tell them about the robbery, he couldn’t tell them about how he practically let his Aunt and Uncle be killed. He couldn’t tell them about his patrols either, he might be able to get away with saying he witnessed someone get mugged or assaulted in New York; but there was no way he could do so without giving up his secret of his late night patrols. Talking about any of his nightmares from before were just out of the question. Period. Nobody needed to know about any of _that_. They always ended up just sitting up with him silently, watching TV and trying not to fall back asleep themselves. He appreciated the gesture, but he really wished they didn’t do that. They both had jobs to go to and they had the others to take care of; he shouldn’t be taking away the only time they had to relax.

Peter leaned over his bed and plugged his phone back into the charger before laying back down. He pulled the covers back up to his chin and counted the specs on the popcorn ceiling above him. It was a ritual he’d gotten used to in the foster system. Being in a new place every couple of weeks was daunting to say the least and Peter still wasn’t comfortable falling asleep in a strange place with people he not only just met recently but also didn’t really speak to. This was a much better home compared to the others he’d been in, but after everything he’d been through in the last couple of months, that didn’t help as much as he would’ve liked. After having to restart counting for the 3rd time his eyes finally started to flutter shut. His last clear thoughts before finally succumbing back to sleep were begging himself to sleep peacefully this time.

_He was back in the store. Holding those damn chips. He felt himself run to the cashier at the front. He saw them. His monster was pointing a gun at them. They saw him._

_The gun went off. Peter flinched painfully at the sound._

_He screamed at the next shot._

_May and Ben were back on the floor by the cashier; a pool of red growing underneath them._

**_Peter_ **

_He looked down at his hands and saw blood. Their blood_

**_Pete_ **

_The sirens blared; someone was pulling him away from their bodies_

**_Sweetie wake up now._ **

_he screamed back at them to let him go. They started to shake his shoulders. He tried to pull away, but they held firm and kept shaking him._

****

**_You’re okay Honey, wake up-_ **

****

_PLEASE please don’t let it be them! Please come back to him!_

****

**_Come on now Peter wake up-_ **

****

**_“_ ** _Get off me please! Let me go!”_

****

**_Peter-_ **

****

**_Peter!_ **

****

Peter woke up with a jolt; eyes widening in fear as a shadow of someone was hovering over him and staring right in his face. He yelled and scrambled away from the intruder in alarm. He heard the other person shout out as he kicked whoever it was in the shoulder. The room was still dark, but he could see a small sliver of light coming from the hallway. All too soon someone turned the light on, and Peter was blinded by the sudden onslaught of brightness. He heard a groan from the floor and looked down to see who it was. He paled at the sight of Mrs. Miller sitting on the floor next to his bed holding her shoulder in pain. Mr. Miller was at her side in an instant trying to help her up.

Still shaking from his nightmare, Peter crawled out of the bed and kneeled next to Mrs. Miller. “Mrs. Miller I’m am so _so_ sorry! Are you okay?” he asked as he hovered over her trying to decide if he should help her up or if he caused enough damage and shouldn’t make it any worse.

Mrs. Miller took a sharp intake of breath in and gave Peter a wavering smile. “I-I’m okay Peter it’s fine. I sh-shouldn’t have startled you awake like that.” She held on tight to her husband’s hand as Mr. Miller and Peter gently maneuvered her onto the bed.

Once having Mrs. Miller situated, Mr. Miller turned to Peter. “Pete, can you go get an icepack out of the freezer for her? There should be one on the top shelf.”

Peter nodded his head frantically and rushed down the hall to the kitchen, a feeling of guilt bubbling in his chest. He reached the freezer in record time and pulled out the icepack from where he was told it was located. He sparred a glance at the time on the oven.

**4:05AM**

Peter cringed. _45 minutes. He’d only been asleep for less than 45 minutes. He couldn’t even make it an hour before waking up like a stupid baby._

He turned to make his way back when he froze on the spot; through the living room he could see the two boys he shared a room with watching him from the couch; clearly tired and clearly disgruntled with being woken up. Peter casted his eyes down to the floor in shame as he fidgeted with the icepack. Another night where he woke up the whole house. He heard a small shift from the couch as one of the boys sat up a bit straighter.

“Another one?” the older boy- Theo asked.

Peter inwardly cringed but nodded. Still keeping his head down. He peeked up from his curtain of curls to see the two boys on the couch. Theo nodded his head tiredly before nudging the younger boy- Devon; who was already falling back asleep again; in the shoulder to wake him up a bit. Devon groaned slightly and rubbed his eyes to try and rub the sleep out of them.

Theo sighed which triggered a yawn which caused the other two boys to yawn as well. Peter bit his lip guiltily as he saw them yawning. Theo and Devon didn’t deserve to have someone keep waking them up. They had issues of their own without having Peter’s problems to deal with on top of theirs.

Devon opened his eyes drowsily and looked over at Peter, frowning as he glanced down. “What’s the icepack for?” he asked, Peter looked back at the icepack, the sheer cold numbing his fingers.

He wished he could numb everything else as well.

“I- Uh- kicked Mrs. Miller in the shoulder when I woke up” Peter stuttered out, fingering the icepack in his hands. “I was just getting her some ice to help.”

Both Theo and Devon looked at him in shock at his words. Peter winced as the guilt of hurting Mrs. Miller hit him again full force.

“You better get that Icepack to her then.” Theo pointed back to the bedroom, Devon nodding in agreement. “We can talk later.”

Peter didn’t even look up as he jogged back down the hall to the bedroom. Slowing down when he heard Mr. and Mrs. Miller talking.

“I don’t know Hun-I just _don’t_ _know_ what to do with that kid.” Peter heard Mr. Miller say.

“There’s nothing to do; It- it was an accident.” Mrs. Miller soothed her husband Peter winced as he could hear the pain in her voice “He didn’t mean to kick me.”

“I know he didn’t mean to; but that doesn’t change that he still did it.” Mr. Miller pointed out.

“He was coming out of a nightmare Charlie. That’s how he gets, we know- _AH_ \- this. I was too close to him.”

“That’s not your fault, you had to wake him up somehow. You were trying to help him!”

“But I should have moved away. When he woke up, I-I should have moved away.” Peter heard her gasp painfully and Mr. Miller went on alert.

“Easy Joan easy. Let me look at it.”

“Honey I’m _fine_.” Peter and Mr. Miller both scoffed at the clear lie. “It’s probably just gonna bruise. We know how he is coming out of nightmares; I- _AH_ _really_ shouldn’t have been so close to him waking up.”

Mr. Miller sighed “I know but still, that kick could’ve caused- “

But Mrs. Miller cut him off. “Don’t, just. Don’t. I don’t want to make a big deal of this. It was an accident Charlie. I’ll live.”

Peter could hear the doubt come from Mr. Miller. “Alright, but if anything changes, we go get it checked out. No questions asked.”

Mrs. Miller sighed back. “It’s a deal.”

Peter steeled himself up and turned into the room, standing awkwardly in the doorway until the adults noticed he was back. He winced in guilt when he saw Mrs. Miller’s shoulder had the first stages of a bruise forming from where he kicked her. Mr. Miller was the first to notice him and tried to give him a smile as he held out his hand for the icepack. Peter hurriedly gave it to him; Mr. Miller quickly took the pillowcase off one his pillows to cover the pack and pressed it to Mrs. Miller’s shoulder. Mrs. Miller looked over to him and smiled too, doing her best to cover up her shoulder with the icepack so Peter couldn’t see the damage. his guilt intensified as she did this. He knew that Mrs. Miller was trying to spare him from seeing what he did to her. Even when he’d hurt her, she still tried to help him.

He tore his eyes away from her shoulder; forcing himself to meet her eyes instead. “I-I just want to say I’m sorry again, I didn’t mean wake you guys up again, o-or to hurt you I _swear_ I just-“

But Mrs. Miller just gave him a strained smile. “It’s okay hun.” Mr. Miller coughed, and she spared him a quick glance before focusing back on Peter. “I’m not going to get worked up over it so neither should either of you.” She looked at both Peter and Mr. Miller pointedly. “What I AM concerned about is how you’re doing Peter.” She hissed in pain as she stiffly turned to Peter; but he broke eye-contact and looked down at the floor. She blew out a breath. “Look-We know you don’t like to talk about them, and I don’t want to push you- but maybe now is a good time to start opening up; just a little bit hm? At least let us know what we can do to help you.”

_But I’ve been getting better._ “I-I’m getting better.” Peter defends feebly. He knows it’s a slow process, but he’s has been getting better. He’s trying so damn hard to get better.

Mr. Miller sighed. “I know that’s what the counselor told you; and you have been; but don’t you think it would help _more_ if you started to talk about it a bit to someone?”

Peter bit his lip guiltily. He had this conversation multiple times. Some with the state appointed counselor, sometimes from a couple of the foster parents that he’d stayed with, and sometimes with his social worker. Peter knew they were all just trying to help him. He knew it was part of their job to try and help. He could even understand where they were all coming from; but he couldn’t tell them. They didn’t understand what he was going through. They could _never_ understand what he was going through, what he’d still been dealing with. But they all stayed adamant. They wanted him to _talk_ about it; about what happened, about how he was _feeling_ about it all. But the more they pushed him to talk about it, the more Peter found himself staying quiet. He heard one of his foster parents say to his social worker after they sent him back that they thought Peter’s unwillingness to talk about what happened _that_ _night_ could be attributed to ‘teenage stubbornness’. Peter had been getting in his social worker’s car at time and held his head down in shame as it hurt to just be given up on so quickly _again_ but to hear that on top of his humiliation formed a rock in the pit of his stomach.

_pesky teenage stubbornness._ May’s loving voice cut through his thoughts. She had said it that night as a joke; before everything all want to shit. Peter couldn’t hold back his sob as her words of endearment had been thrown back at him as part of the reason another family gave him up; it haunted his heart. 

“Pete _please_.” Mrs. Miller continued after realizing she was not getting a response. “We know you haven’t been here long; but we just want to help you. But we can’t help you if you don’t let us.”

Peter tensed. He knew what he was _supposed_ to do. He knew that he had to _eventually_ talk about it. That’s what all the adults in his life wanted him to do. They all said it would help him cope. It would help him get _better_. But he thought he’d be able to talk about it in his own time. He had hoped that he could feel comfortable enough one day with someone to be able to go to _them_. He thought he had _more_ _time_. Peter was learning quickly that time was also not a luxury for a foster kid.

Peter tried to do it. He really did. He tried so many times to talk about it when he’d been asked to. But every time he opened his mouth, he felt like cotton was stuck in his throat. He couldn’t do it. “I-I’m sorry.” His voice hitched. He hated himself sounding so weak, for hurting Mrs. Miller and still not give her what she wanted from him. He couldn’t bear to think about what his parents or his Aunt and Uncle would think of him if they saw him now. “I can’t. I-I just can’t right now. _Please_ just stop asking me.” **_Please_** _just let me choose when I come to you. **If** I come to you._

Mr. and Mrs. Miller tried to conceal their disappointment at his answer, but he could still see it in their eyes in the way they looked at him. Peter felt a wave of shame come over him. They thankfully didn’t push any further, but as Peter was fiddling with the hem of his night shirt, they glanced at each other somberly. By the time Peter focused back on them though, they had already turned their attention back to him.

“Alright,” Mr. Miller said as he stood up, he gently helped his wife back on her feet and held the icepack up for her. ”I know you don’t want to go back to sleep anytime soon but it’s too early for everyone to be conscious; so why don’t you go to the living room and watch some TV? Keep it on low so Theo and Devon can try and go back to sleep at least.”

A pang went through his chest at the thought of the other boys and how he woke them up _again_ and nodded glumly. Peter turned and was about to walk away from the couple when Mrs. Miller spoke up.

“We’ll come in and sit with you in a little bit; we just need to talk for a second.” Peter tensed at her words and Mrs. Miller frowned.

“Don’t worry Pete, it’s nothing bad.” Mr. Miller said also noting the change in stance from the teen frowning when the boy’s stance tensed further. Little did he know but that sentence alone put Peter on high alert. Every time. Every. Single. Time someone said those words Peter always ended up getting screwed over. His parents said it when they told him they were going on out of town on a plane and he had to stay with his Aunt and Uncle. His Aunt and Uncle would say it when they needed to talk to Peter when was in trouble but didn’t want him to ‘stress out’ all day. His social worker said it to him when she brought up how messed up he was and that he needed help. (which wasn’t her _exact_ words, but Peter could read in-between the lines) and that he needed to go see a counselor. Two of his foster homes had even given him back up after saying those words. He could swear that everyone who ever said, ‘it’s nothing bad’ to Peter had a completely different view than him on what was considered ‘bad’.

Regardless, Peter knew that the adults in his life now didn’t like when he showed he was upset; he guessed it was because nothing made people feel more unease then seeing a sad orphan. So, he managed to plaster a fake smile on his face. They relaxed visibly as they couldn’t see through what he thought was an obvious lie; or just refused to acknowledge it. As much as it hurt it was times like these that Peter had to remind himself how alone he really was in the world. How even though social workers and foster parents said they cared and that they wanted to help him, their concern ended when Peter pretended that things were okay; they never dug further than face value; none of them ever did.

“Head on into the living room Pete; tell the boys they can go back to bed.” Mr. Miller pointed out the door when Peter was still frozen to his spot. He turned back around so his back was facing them and nodded his head at the dismissal before leaving the room.

Peter’s head hung low as he trudged back down the hallway to the living room where the other boys were now quietly watching TV. They were just watching an episode of SpongeBob when Peter came into the room. Even though they were all up at this unholy hour they still looked to be enjoying themselves. He felt bad for having to disturb them yet again just so they could go back to bed when he was the reason, they both were up in the first place.

Luckily, he didn’t have to interrupt the show as a commercial came onto the screen and Devon got up to stretch out- thus noticing Peter in the entranceway. “Hey, How’s Mrs. Miller doing? Is she okay?” as soon as the words came out of Devon’s mouth, Theo looked over to Peter as well looking for confirmation as well.

Peter squirmed in his spot on the floor as the two boys gazed intently for news on their guardian. “S-she said she’s fine. She has the icepack on her shoulder.”

Theo furrowed his brow slightly but didn’t say anything. Peter knew he was being studied by the older boy. Theo had been in the foster system for four years now. Peter had met kids that had been in the system longer of course, but it was more than Peter and Devon combined. He knew the drill with fosters. It was one of the first things Peter learned with his previous foster parents too. Foster parents could be notorious for pretending everything was ‘fine’ before sending a kid back into the system. But he didn’t say anything which Peter was thankful for. Instead he got up from his spot on the couch and picked up the remote. Wordlessly, he handed it to Peter who nodded his head in thanks.

Devon, who had been fixing pillows on the couch turned back to the older boys. “Are you feeling any better now?”

Peter shrunk in a little on himself. He was used to hiding his nightmares and his feelings from people; he did it with his Uncle Ben and Aunt May with ease; granted, they weren’t home much at night and his nightmares were not at the intensity as they were _now_. But now; every time someone brought them up like this so casually made Peter feel like he was put on display. He tried to fake another smile to the younger boy. “Yeah- I-I’m doing fine. You two can head back to bed if you want, I’m gonna stay up for a bit.”

It was a lie of course. One that none of the boys believed for a second. They both looked at him deadpanned. But Peter felt no guilt saying it though. He knew that they knew he wasn’t fine. It was a lie all of them told many times, whether it was to each other or to themselves. It was something that they could comfort themselves with when their already shitty lives give them another bad hand.

Devon was the one to make the first move, he rounded the couch before stopping in front of Peter. In one quick motion, he wrapped his arms around Peter’s middle and squeezed tight. Peter hesitated at first but accepted the hug from the boy; the times that Peter got any physical comfort from someone now was so rare that he soaked up the opportunity when he could.

Devon was the first to break off from the hug. He smiled gratefully at the younger boy as Devon looked up sleepily back at him and left the room, leaving the two older boys alone. Peter felt the weight of the other boy’s stare as he fiddled with the remote.

Finally, _finally_ Theo spoke. “They tried to make you talk about it again didn’t they?”

Peter nodded his head and sighed. “Yeah, yeah they did.”

The older boy studied him closely. “And did you?” he asked although it sounded like he already knew the answer.

Peter shook his head. “No.”

Theo nodded his head solemnly. “I get it. I do. But I-uh, I think you’ve gotta tell them something soon. At least give them something to work with.”

The boy bit his lip in trepidation. Was he really getting _that_ bad that now even the other foster kids were telling him to move on?

But the other boy could clearly see where his mind was going. Either that or, and Peter thought this was more accurate; he had been in the same position before. “I’m not saying tell them everything- the Miller’s mean well sure, but they can’t rush you. They can wait till you’re ready like they’re supposed to.” He paused and tried to think of the right way to word what he wanted to say next. “But, even if it’s one thing- it; well- It might be the difference between-“

But he didn’t want to continue. Peter didn’t want him to continue either. They both knew what the difference it would make. But neither of them wanted to acknowledge it. So, they didn’t.

So, Peter nodded his head at the boy, processing his words carefully. “I’m sorry I woke you guys up.” The apology felt weak even to him; because no matter how many times he apologized for his nightmares and for waking them all up; it didn’t take long for him to do it all over again.

“It’s my fault really.” Theo says offhandedly. “With all this time I’ve spent in foster care I should have picked up ear plugs by now.”

It’s meant to be a joke, and Peter responds as much. His lips quirk up slightly as the other boy goes to grab his phone from the couch before turning back to him. “I guess I’ll leave you to it then, you sure you’re alright?”

Peter immediately sobers up and nods his head at Theo. It may not be much but he’s as good as he’s going to get. “Yeah, I’m just gonna watch some TV. You go back to bed. Try to get _some_ sleep before the sun comes up.” He says much to his own Chagrin. Of course, everyone _could_ _still_ be sleeping by now if he’d just kept _quiet_.

Theo doesn’t sense his inner turmoil; or just doesn’t comment on it as he lets out a rather large yawn. “Alright, try not to stay up too long though. I’ll probably only sleep for a couple more hours, same as Devon. I promised him we’d head out and do something this morning out of the house for a couple or hours.” He looked at Peter with a meaningful stare.

Peter nodded his head in acknowledgement but inside his mind stopped with a screeching halt. He understood _exactly_ what Theo was trying to say. Theo and Devon leaving the house, and Mr. and Mrs. Miller were both going to work; the house will be empty; he could sleep knowing he wouldn’t wake anyone up. That took a _huge_ weight off his shoulders.

Peter looked straight at the boy feeling nothing but gratitude. “Thank you.” Those words did the most to calm him down since he had woken up for the second time that night.

Theo only smiled slightly in return. “Yeah, yeah just do me a favor and try and get some sleep later, deal? Or else dealing with a preteen all morning without any benefit is going to _suck_.”

Both boys let out a small laugh. Theo took this as his opportunity to bid his goodnight(morning) and leave the room to head back to bed-leaving Peter in the room by himself. Turning the remote controller over in his hand, he turned back to the TV. Suddenly feeling very cold, Peter curled in on himself as he stood in the middle of the living room. Without a second thought, he went over to the chest the Miller’s kept by the wall that held all their throw blankets. He pulled the first one out (A hand-knit white and brown blanket) and wrapped it around his shoulders. The warmth that followed was immediate and Peter let himself relax slightly. He trudged over to the couch and plopped himself on the middle cushion. He wrapped the blanket tighter around himself in comfort as he started flipping through channels and waited for his fosters to come sit with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO sorry for the delay of this chapter!! I was having trouble with my Microsoft not saving ANY of my work that I wrote. it was telling me I was using to much space on my computer and I had delete my stuff. I had to fight through many robot customer service henchman just to get a person who told me i needed to buy more space to fix the problem.


	5. A Hard Decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry it's been a long time since I updated! Life has been absolutely crazy right now. Back to constant work and little to no time to sit down and write. But its my birthday today and I really wanted to get out a chapter to guys today as a gift to you. I know it's a bit short but I promise the next chapter will be longer!

**Charlie** and **Joan** bid their other two boys goodnight before returning to their bedroom so they could talk in private. Charlie dutifully assisted his wife to their room even with her fond but exasperated protests of “He hurt my shoulder, Hun – not my legs!”

Charlie still brought his wife over to their bed and propped up the pillows before having her lay down on the bed. He watched her in concern as she painfully moved a pillow to a comfortable enough position to prop up her shoulder just right. When she finally found a good spot, she relaxed her arm and laid back into the pillows. Joan turned to her husband and motioned to the door; with one swift motion, he turned to the door and pushed it closed. They may not have been foster parents for long, but even they knew that it would have been too easy to have young ears ‘accidentally’ eavesdrop on their conversation if given the chance.

Charlie turned then to a door off to the side of their room leading to a bathroom and wordlessly grabbed a couple of painkillers from the medicine cabinet; he went back to his wife and closed the distance between them and sat on his side of the bed. Taking his water bottle that he kept on his nightstand; he handed her the pills and then the water. He watched her keenly as she accepted the pills and then the water before slumping in relief back into the bed.

Joan closed her eyes and let out a long exhale. “Stop your worrying; the pain hasn’t escalated. I just don’t have anything else to put my focus on.”

Charlie’s lips quirked slightly upwards. She wasn’t even _looking_ at him and she could tell. “Am I Really that predictable?” he asked.

Joan cocked an eyebrow at him without even bothering to open her eyes. “When it comes to you and safety? Absolutely. It’s normally cute seeing you like this. Now this time though, it’s because of a _child_. And as much as you like to think differently; I really don’t feel as if I’m in danger from a kid like Peter.” And it was the truth. Joan really did enjoy having Peter around. They’ve only had him for a little over three weeks, but she found him to be a sweet boy who, even though he was a bit too socially awkward, was eager to please and was always kind to others. She remembered what the Social Worker told her about the boy, so she knew of the trauma the poor boy had gone through that got him in the system.

She knew that Peter had to have been having a hard time in the system going in and out of group homes to foster homes at the drop of a hat. All the kids did. She didn’t know much about his other homes were like or even how long he’d been in them before coming to her and Charlie; but she did know a little about the last family he had been with before coming to them, she knew it that it had to have been hard for him one day having a home and a family and then the next day losing everything. All she wanted to do was help him, but she was running out of ideas to get him to talk to them. She knew that keeping things like this all bottled up wasn’t good for anyone; especially not kids and she could only imagine how foster kids had it worse than others. So, she tried to always make sure she was there for all her kids; making sure that they knew they could come to her no matter what. But it hurt her that it wasn’t working for Peter. She knew he had it rough; but she tried to show him that she cared. She didn’t want to force it out of him; but she knew that once he did finally talk to someone, he would start to heal a little more by the day.

Charlie sighed “I know Hun, I know.” And like Joan, he did; Charlie knew Peter was a good kid. A little quirky but hey, he wasn’t complaining. What he was upset about however was that his wife got hurt, and she got hurt pretty bad. He knew the teen didn’t mean it. He saw the look of fear in his eyes the moment he woke up and the horrifying realization that flashed across his face once he saw his wife on the floor nursing her shoulder. But that still doesn’t change the fact that his wife got hurt; and she got hurt from a kid she was trying to _help_. He was worried about the damage that the kid had caused his wife; he was even more worried now about how much more damage the kid could accidently cause if he stayed with them.

Joan sighed. “Sometimes I don’t think you do. He’s not a dangerous kid Charlie! He- _fuck!_ “ She hissed in pain as she turned to him to speak; accidently shifting her shoulder in the process. Charlie immediately went to straighten out her arm; apologizing as he watched her wince in pain.

After getting his wife situated on the pillows again, he moved in closer to her and cocked an eyebrow at her. “You were _saying_?” he asked her cockily.

She glared at him; which was lessened by the yawn that she tried to cover. “It’s nothing; just jostled it a bit too much.”

He gave her a deadpanned look. “ _Too much_? You _barely_ moved your arm!”

His wife pursed her lips but said nothing.

Charlie let out a puff of air in frustration. His wife had a heart of gold; truly she did. it’s what made him fall in love with her. But sometimes she could be stubborn to a fault and turn a blind eye to things that were blaringly obvious. “I know you want to help him hun; I do too! But the boy isn’t responding to our help at all!” he whispered harshly at her. He didn’t want any of the boys overhearing their conversation. Being a foster father; Charlie learned quickly that the kids in the system almost always jumped to the worst possible conclusions. He couldn’t blame them for it; not in the slightest. But who knew what kind of panic it would set off if the boys heard them and came to assumptions before things were even settled?

“That’s not being fair to Peter. He been through a lot and he hasn’t even been here long enough for him to be comfortable with us! We can’t just give up on him too; we just need to give him more time!” Joan whispered back just as fiercely. She knew her husband meant well. But didn’t he understand? Peter’s only been with them for three and a half weeks! That’s _not even close_ to enough time to create a solid foundation of trust with anybody, let alone a foster child that had been in and out of multiple homes in the past year. She knew that for them to get Peter to trust them would be if they showed him that they wouldn’t just send him back to the system the moment things started to get rough.

Charlie sat back up and turned to face her. “How much more time are we going to give him huh? Until he lashes out after another nightmare?”

“He didn’t _lash_ _out_ ; he woke up and panicked at me being so close! And it hasn’t even been a month yet Charlie-”

“-And he’s already kicked you so hard that it left a bruise large enough to cover your shoulder and now you can’t move it without pain!” he gestured to her shoulder which she was actively trying to maneuver it in a more comfortable position.

“It was an _accident_! It’s not like he meant to hurt me!” she glared at him as she was trying to get her shoulder in a better position. Charlie reached out to help her move her arm and she huffed in frustration. In truth she wasn’t that upset with Charlie. Yes, he kept trying to mother-hen her but that was just the way he was. A lot of her anger was that she was upset with herself. Joan was trying to do what she thought was best for Peter. But she had no idea how to help him if he refused help every single time, she made the offer. She was worried that it was her; maybe they weren’t doing something right, maybe they weren’t putting enough time aside to talk to him. True he hadn’t been there long enough to really make a connection with them yet but why wouldn’t he not want to take off some of the burden off his shoulders? What could she do to make him see how much that will help him if he’d just open up?

Charlie pursed his lips when he heard his wife huff at him, but he couldn’t help it. It was hard watching someone you love, take a hit like that and still be the happy foster parent who keeps giving their foster kid chance after chance to do better. Couldn’t she understand that? What would she do if-

_Oh_.

“What if the next time it’s not you huh? What if it’s me? What if it’s one of the boys?” Charlie asked her. When she didn’t answer him, he continued. “I know he’s a good kid and I know he didn’t mean it. You don’t have to keep telling me that. But try to see it where I’m coming from. It’s hard to see you hurt like this Joan, and I can’t just sit by and wait and see if it’s going to happen again.”

Joan bit her lip and turned her gaze to the ceiling. No; she wouldn’t be okay with it at _all_ if it had been Charlie or the other boys who had gotten hurt. Whether she wanted to admit it to herself or not; the kick to her shoulder did cause more of an injury than she let on in front of Peter and Charlie, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to hide it from them for long. She knew she couldn’t bear the thought of her husband and other foster kids getting hurt like she did; she would be beside herself with worry and she knew that for a fact; and to risk the chance of them getting hurt was a risk she did not want to take. On the other hand, though; she didn’t want to give up on Peter. The poor boy had gone through so much in the past year and she felt a pang of guilt with the idea of uprooting him again so quickly after coming to them.

But what choice did she have? Keep this child within her home and hope that he starts to open up with them soon and start to heal- risking the safety of her husband and other children in the house every time he had a nightmare? Or let Peter go to a home where they were better suited for handling this kind of situation and could help him more than she and Charlie obviously had been?

_Was it even a choice?_

No. it wasn’t. She felt the fight leave her shoulders as she slumped further into the pillows. Peter deserved to heal and to be happy. And as much as Joan wanted to help Peter with that; she knew she wasn’t ready to handle the issues Peter had to help him. Peter needed someone that knew how to help him heal and give him the time he needed to do that; and Joan had to admit to herself that those special people weren’t her and Charlie. The reality was they were still too new to the foster care system to be confident enough to deal with this kind of trauma. They were way too far out of their depth to take care of Peter; and they had to admit that to themselves before any of their boys got hurt. Peter would do better in a different home.

She resigned herself to what she had to do; hating the words that she knew she had to say; the actions she would have to take. She took a breath and blinked back the tears that she could feel building up. “We’ll call Hannah later; when it’s a more decent hour. Tell her what happened; and-and tell her that Peter can’t stay here.”

Charlie carefully leaned over as to not jostle her shoulder, and pressed his forehead against his wife’s; closing his eyes as he tried to offer her some silent comfort. He knew this was hard for her. It was hard for him too. When they signed up to be foster parents, they didn’t think they would be okay with their kids going back into the system; and they _never_ thought they would be the ones to send a kid back, especially not one as caring and as sweet as Peter. But they had to think about the boys. They didn’t want Theo or Devon getting hurt if Peter was waking up from a nightmare. And they didn’t want Peter to be on edge in their home when he could be somewhere that could help them better than they could. Yes; it was hard, and they felt immensely guilty over it; but they had to do what was right by the boys. By all of them.

They took a moment to themselves before breaking apart. “We should probably get back to Peter, he might be wondering where we’re at by now.” Charlie winced as he realized they probably left the kid alone longer than they intended to. He got back up off the bed and went to the other side to help his wife up.

Joan winced as she tried to maneuver herself off the bed too. It just wasn’t happening. “I-I think I’m going to stay in here for the night.” she told her husband tiredly as she sunk back into the pillows.

Charlie bit his lip worriedly. “You sure?”

She nodded her head. “Yeah I’m sure; tell Peter I’m sorry but I don’t think I can stay up much longer.” Now that she thought about it, she was fighting to keep her eyes open. Even though she got to bed at a decent hour last night it was still too early to be up yet, and the pain killers were starting to kick in too. She could get in a couple more hours of sleep before getting up again. Before they had to send Peter back.

Charlie helped her settle back on the mattress. “I’ll stay with you.”

But Joan shook her head. “I’m fine Hun, I’m just going back to sleep. Stay with Peter tonight; we don’t know how long he’ll be with us after we call.” She reminded him gently; her guilt over their decision increasing as she realized she wouldn’t be there for Peter on one of his last nights with them. She winced as she thought of what Peter would think once he found out that they were sending him back; when he thinks that Joan didn’t want to be there for him when in reality, she wished for nothing more. But there was nothing she could do about it now though. They’ve made their decision and for Peter’s sake they had to go through with it. She felt the tears start to leak out of her eyes, but she was too tired and in too much pain to bother wiping it away. She just wished that she could get up off this damn bed so she could spend a little more time with the boy before he had to leave; before he found out that they were giving him up.

Charlie nodded solemnly at the reminder. They may be returning Peter to the system, but they had no intentions of neglecting him before sending him back. With a quick goodnight kiss to his wife and telling her to get some rest; Charlie headed out to the living room where he saw a depressing sight

**Author's Note:**

> On the story note- just so you guys are aware I know I changed the wording in the dream from past tense to present tense but there was a purpose to that. I did that to show that Peter was reliving his experiences. he felt he was in that moment at the time which is why I put in the present tense. But in the back of his subconscious he already knew the outcome of what had already come to pass. So, cue in the past tense. I’m sorry if that confused some people but that was the reasoning behind that.
> 
> Also I know that originally Ben (and May’s in this story) killer was a thief that Peter refused to stop at a earlier point in time but I felt too guilty to put that kind of guilt on Peter’s shoulders after losing both his Aunt and Uncle in this. I am working on a storyline further on down the road with the thief. I haven’t fully decided what I’m going to do with it yet. I might actually keep that but won’t let that realization come until later But I won’t say when because I’m still trying to plot out this story.


End file.
